Origins
by Swiftstart
Summary: It's the end of the world as we know it; mad man out to take over the multi-verse and an incredibly unlikely band of heroes rises to the occasion to stop him in his tracks. Incredibly ongoing, many fandoms, fun for the whole family :D 11th Doctor, Nikola Tesla sanctuary , Sheriff Carter, Black Widow and Sylar :D slash is unlikely, but may occur. OC Villiain :3
1. Chapter 1

Note: The story here is a crazy mesh of many, many, fandoms. It's the end of the world after all. The first chapter here however depicts an OC villain :3

Every day we expose ourselves to other worlds. These worlds are both hidden and seen, controllable and uncontrolled. They are at times much like our own world, sometimes almost identical, but other times so entirely unfeasible or outside of what we know that we cannot help but call them falsities, or stories. We surround ourselves with them, seeing them usually through the eyes of another; crying when they cry, laughing when they laugh, and sometimes picking favorites- convinced that one world or person is higher than the rest.

How do we see these worlds? And how is it that we pass them by every day, every hour, without ever realizing it? The answer is simple: we look in on them through windows. Not literal windows of course, but literary ones. Other worlds are present in books, stories, movies, and television shows; and they are just as real as we are. Whenever we read a fairy tale or that new best seller, watch a soap opera or a zombie apocalypse flick, we are looking in on other worlds. Some people may claim to create them, and they are the authors. To an extent they are creators, but for the most part what the authors are really truly doing is allowing for others to look in on one particular world that that they have access to, or a connection to. They may call the characters "theirs" or the particular unique elements of the world "their own" but in truth they have simply come to discover the world. Just as Columbus discovered the Americas, they were already there; he didn't make them, but he found them and told others.

There is certainly an element of control present. In discovering the Americas Columbus allowed for horses to populate, wars to erupt, brilliant minds to be born that would create cars, electricity or computers- while at the same time diseases like Small Pox or Malaria ravaged across the land killing thousands. And in the same way that America was changed by its discoverers a storybook world can be changed by its author. Which is where we turn our attention to a Mr. Jonathon Stone, a lowly television writer who was about to discover true power.

Mr. Stone was no one significant, and while in his writings he was talented- he was little noticed. He had written a few spare pieces of episodes of this show or that show, and once wrote nearly an entire episode of a popular science fiction television show (but only because the head writers were all out with the flu) but this did not amount to much. Or at least, it didn't until he discovered a tool not usually used for writing; a chess board. Found under a stack of others seemingly just like it, in a dingy antique shop where his Mother had dragged him so that he could theoretically move a rather large umbrella stand. The umbrella stand apparently dated back to 1892, and had been made by some quaint little carpenter in New Hampshire (a carpenter his aging mother and come to adore, as she had already purchased a table, 6 dining room chairs and a wardrobe that would make the gateway to Narnia blush when taste and simplicity are taken into account). Mr. Stone, now in his mid-thirties, drifted through the shelves of general junk occasionally stopping to look at one battered object or another until he came to it; the chess board.

It was at first glance much like the other chessboards in the shop; slightly tattered, with black and white squares made of a marble or granite type material (he'd never done well in science class) but despite times best efforts it was still lovely. It was roughly 5 inches tall with small drawers in the sides that when opened revealed some of the most beautiful chess pieces he had ever seen. Each piece had been hand carved out of wood with such unique, individual and, in a few cases, eerily familiar faces that his inner writer was blown away by the tacky board and small army of figurines.

"H-How much for this c-c-chess set?" He inquired, not even looking up from a figurine resembling a man in his late twenties; wearing a modern green shirt and holding one hand up towards the side of his head, a furrowed brow of concentration on his tiny carved face. The pedestal he stood on marked him as a knight, and was carved to resemble an upside down pineapple; the leaves giving artistic support to the green-shirted figure standing atop the flat base that was the pineapples bottom. Every piece had a unique pedestal; one was simple, standing atop a small blue box, while another was incredibly elaborate with a turtle, 4 elephants and even a small disc all stacked on top of each other.

"5 bucks" The antique salesman grumbled, gesturing towards a sign that very prominently read: ALL BOARD GAMES 5 DOLLARS.

"Oh, y-yes- of c-c-course, thank you" Mr. Stone stammered. "I-I'll take it"

Which is of course the pinnacle point, the point at which all hell breaks loose and the world quakes in fear of what is to come. That chess board was never intended to be sold, let alone placed in an antique shop. And it most certainly was not supposed to be used by mortal hands. No, Mr. Stone had found a chess board that was a blatant plant, probably placed by some all-powerful being with a grudge; or another just looking for a little fun or excitement- which always goes so well, just ask some Shinigami.

This is a chessboard designed by gods, for gods, and could be used to make almost anything happen. It was a writers dream, especially a writer who lived in a world where his mother was naggy, his thinning hair kept him single, and a hopeless stutter left him with such little self-esteem that the possibility of playing GOD, of having POWER twisted his mind and started a chain reaction which would, inevitably, nearly result in the complete and utter takeover of the multi-verse.


	2. Chapter 2

Light shone in through the annoying crack in the curtains. Irritably, one Sheriff Jack Carter rolled over in an effort to ignore the call of the day, only to see the time on his well-placed alarm clock.

8:32

It took him a moment to remember why time was a relevant matter, and why human beings didn't simply just evolve into slugs that could sleep all day and gain food stuff from the air or something when it occurred to him. Something very big occurred to him, something that would get him in one heck of a lot of trouble. Work! Breakfast! The daily routine! His realization about his place in the human existence startled him so much that he rolled out of bed, successfully catching not only the annoying curtains but also the cord to the well-placed alarm clock and dragging them down with him until he was a great caterpillar of blankets and clock-cord that had begun blaring it's alarm wildly.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Carter pulled on his uniform, all beige with no fun, which when fully complete gave him such an acute resemblance to Andy Griffith that while pausing to look in the mirror for a brief second to make sure his badge was straight; Carter moaned to himself about needing to get a less black-and-white haircut.

Yanking on his boots Carter hurried out the door to the small rented home he was living in; 23 Main Street, Littleton, Iowa. He powerwalked across the street to the police station and grinned sheepishly at his team who were doing what they do almost every morning; shaking their heads while pushing him a coffee and breakfast sandwich. Carter's team was, in his humble opinion, the best in all of small-town existence. With Co-Sheriff Samual Vimes and Deputy Emma Swann at his side, the three saw to it that no dog was lost, no graffiti un-cleaned, and no drunk wandered the streets raving.

"Alarm not go off again?" Emma said conversationally, not looking up from the paper: The Little Babble; the front page advertising a sale on stamps and discussing a church pot-luck that had occurred in the previous week.

"Only after I woke up" Carter replied gruffly, plopping cream and sugar into his coffee. "Now, anything crazy happening today?"

Vimes looked up at him from the one computer, his scar overly-dramatizing his features; "Tesla's drunk again, sociopath guy won't leave his house, and that Weasel Woman-"

"Weasley" Emma corrected without looking up from the Babble.

"_Weasely woman's_ convinced he's dead- oh and that Eddie Arlette guys dog has chased the Kanes cat up a tree again"

"Again?" Carter groaned. That dog, he was pretty certain, was not only part pit-bull, but was kin to Satan too.

"Again" Emma said, putting down The Babble, "Best get to business"

And so the daily routine began. First the threesome stopped by the bar to get the town drunks either home, to Doctor House or to the police station if need be. Which, in the case of one particularly troublesome fellow, a Mr. Nikola Tesla, it was almost always the police station. Next, they stopped by Mrs. Weasley's home, who with her giant frizz of brown hair most insistently told them that her neighbor, a rather peculiar man by the name of Mr. Holmes hadn't left his house for over a week. From her home they went to Mr. Holmes, which was always an odd…adventure. Vimes would knock on the door and it would be opened just a crack- revealing a pale thin face with pin-prick black eyes. They would talk briefly and the face, Mr. Holmes, would insist that he was quite all right and that he was merely bored. Oh, and he usually brought up the "sociopath" card before closing the door on them. They then of course told Mrs. Weasley, that no, Mr. Holmes was not dead and would you please stop worrying about him, he's quite all right.

"Do you get federal funding if you're a sociopath?" Carter was wondering aloud as they made their way to deal with what was possibly the worst part of the day. The dog.

The dog's name was Pete, and he was a nasty black-and-white devil with a long flat muzzle and a tendency to not only growl, but chew on everything. Including Sheriff Carter.

"Oh Sheriff! Good you're finally here!" Standing at the base of only the largest tree in all of Littleton were the Kane kids, Sadie and Carter, and also Mr. Eddie Arlette, the owner of "Pete". Now somehow, and Carter was never sure how, the Kane's cat Muffin would make it out of the house, find herself under Pete's paws, and Pete, being a dog of little imagination, would proceed to chase Muffin up the biggest darn tree in Littleton, sometimes climbing the great oak-beast himself just to get at Muffin.

Carter didn't even bother listening to the kids, Eddie, or the dogs explanation for how both cat and dog had wound up in the tree, more specifically on opposite ends, the cat being the farthest left possible and the dog being the farthest right possible. Carter simply began climbing the tree. Vimes had some fear of heights (so he insisted) and Emma well, he couldn't see her up a tree- it wouldn't be right of him to make her climb the thing, so Carter ALWAYS climbed the tree. Carter started with the cat, 'cause usually once the cat was out of the tree the dog would follow soon after. Today this was not the case. The dog had genuinely gotten himself stuck, and so, after Carter dropped Muffin into a yelling Sadie Kane's outstretched arms, he had to climb towards the demon-dog Pete.

"Nice boy- good…stay" Carter was saying as he crawled across the tree on his knees towards the growling beast. "Now just hold still…"

"Grrr!"

"Don't worry- come on now" Carter stretched out an arm, to have it snapped at.

"Grrr!"

Carter stopped and glared at the thing for a few seconds. Eddie was shouting up something about getting his favorite chew toy to lure him down. Dogs. Why do people like them? Carter wondered as he made a move for Pete again. As he lunged, Pete moved, jumping up and onto Carters back and walking across and down Carter until he was on the ground again. This, for the dog was good- gravity was a nice thing. For Carter however...

The darn dog had thrown him off balance and he found himself falling out of Littleton's biggest tree, landing on his back cursing.

"Sorry- Pete sometimes thinks he's an acrobat. You need help at all?" Eddie was leaning over him, offering a hand, which Carter took, though still glaring at Pete, who was now sitting there with a look of puppy-like innocence, which, in all truth really means pure evil.

Carter grumbled the whole way back to the police station, visions of ice-packs and dead dogs floating in his head.

When the daily routine was broken. Normally, after dealing with the daily cases they went back to the station, had lunch, loafed about for a bit, then it would turn out that some kids were either out drinking by the high school or spraying graffiti on the church, and they'd chase them down, bring them home and by the time that was done it was time to head home. Nothing else ever happened in Littleton. Nothing. Until right then, that is, for Carter, (Emma and Vimes had already made their way across the street to the police station) as a car came like a mad-bull, swerving wildly left and right, however rather than have a hatred towards red this bull was anti-beige. There was screeching of brakes as a bright yellow kit car with an estimated age somewhere around 100 years old collided with Carter, sending him over the windshield so that once the shock had passed he realized he was on the wrong end of the car; the license plate reading WHO 1.

"Terribly sorry!" A voice cried out, leaping from the car and pulling Carter up with more enthusiasm than should be allowed after what had probably been a major accident. The other person (presumably the driver) was looking Carter over from top to bottom and was becoming increasingly excited.

"Thought so! Knew it! And here I was a tad afraid I was going crazy- but then of course that's simply because they've tapped into my cerebral cortex and applied a type C holographic-reality with a slight ouch of a number 45 neural interface, probably from Klom if I'm not mistaken"

Carter looked the man over from top to bottom, his brain working again. The man was somewhere in his early twenties, with one of those wool coats British people tended to wear, and a garishly red bowtie.

"What?" Carter exclaimed; he'd seen the Doctor around town, he was some sort of physicist- he taught at the high school and he'd always seemed a bit off, but never so off as to intentionally crash his car into a police officer and start yammering away about…well, Lord knows what.

"You're not injured!" The Doctor said beaming, "see- take a look at yourself- not a scratch on you!"

"What are you talking about- you just hit me at like 70 miles an hour with your car! Of course I'm injured, see-" Carter stopped. There was no blood, there were no bruises. His beige Andy Griffith suit wasn't even dirty. "I'm not…whoa, whoa, whoa, this is some kind of crazy"

The doctor stood there still grinning ear to ear, Emma, however, had had enough of it.

"You're under arrest Doc- you just intentionally hit this man, the sheriff!"

Which is exactly how the Doctor landed himself in the police station cell, and Carter at Doctor Houses, getting checked over for things like internal bleeding, which is generally pretty bad.

"Not a scratch on ya" House said, feigning a lack of surprise. "Guess god likes you"

"Not a scratch? But he hit me at practically 70 miles an hour!" Carter protested, unwilling to believe that he could have possibly come out without a scratch.

"Don't look at me, I just tell you what's wrong with you- you tell me how it happened" House retorted back, "Now get out- there's plenty of sick people here who are just dying to come here, unlike you, now boot it!"

Carter wandered the streets in a daze; the moon hanging low and bright so that only a few stars were visible. What happened? I should be dead- or at least bleeding my guts out…or something. His head buzzed. Something didn't make sense, something that he couldn't put his finger on. He peered into the bar as he wandered by- the regulars already in their positions. Tesla with roughly three bottles in front of him, Stark looking gloomily into what Carter guessed was some "very hard stuff" and Billy looking as he always did: depressed. It occurred to Carter just then just how sad and pathetic Littleton was, all three of those men were supposed to be, well, super smart. Instead they spent their days drinking their intelligence to nothingness so that their little gray cells withered away unused. As he walked along more caught him as odd. That dumb cat and dog repeated their chase every day and almost always in the same way. In fact, he was a cop! Crimes (or random acts of evil dogginess) were not supposed to be routine or run of the mill; they should have definition. Be different from each other, unique. That didn't happen in Littleton- in fact Carter remembered when he used to work… elsewhere. Somewhere. Somewhere where the crimes were anything but ordinary… but where..? Why couldn't he remember? Come to think of it, all he could remember was waking up every day and going across the street to the police station. There never was anything else. At least, not that he could recall. And it had been the same every day, except today. Today he got hit by a car.

I got to talk to the Doctor. Carter thought to himself, and not just any doctor: THE Doctor.


	3. Chapter 3

The Doctor looked up as Carter came in, a knowing smile forming on his lips as even from behind bars the Doctor knew everything. Carter pulled up a chair and sat across from the Doctor, separated only by the bars of the small prison cell.

"I can't be injured" Carter said after a moment, and after waiting a few moments more continued: "And nothing happens here- nothing. It's always just the same."

"That's because it's not real. None of it. Took me a bit to realize it myself- whoever set this mad-matrix up is a bit of a genius, and coming from me that's saying something"

"Matrix?" Carter put in- "You mean like with the 'there is no spoon' thing and the crazy backflips? And that guy named Leo?"

"Neo actually, but that's not important- same basic idea though"

Carter groaned inwardly, "So are you gonna offer me the red pill or the blue pill now or something?"

"It's not that simple- wish it was. Then it'd be easy, but unfortunately the people who made this have all seen the Matrix and figured most of the population has too. But no worries, I know what we're gonna do and I'll need your help for it. There's just about 4 things I gotta tell you though"

"Like what?"

"Well, A) We need two specific peoples- people who have been made weaker here so that they can't stop it all; you'll know them: Nikola Tesla and... and.. Snap, what's his name…? Gabriel Grey, that's right. They both have one thing in common that'll get us out of this mess of a mess"

"Wait the drunk and that weird clock guy with the dweeb hair?" Carter cut in, picturing the two, not quite sure what they had in common other than both being skinny white brunette guys.

"Let me continue! 2. I need to get into the town hall building and fiddle with the tidbits on that ugly statue-"

"You mean the one of President Rutherford B. Hayes?"

"Yea him! The bloke with the mother of all beards- anyways, point C! You can't tell anyone- anyone at all that we know this is the matrix"

"Anyone? Wait but you want me to get that Tesla guy and that clock guy- plus you haven't really explained to me how you know-" Carter protested, starting to get unbelievably confused.

"I said we need them! I didn't say tell them what we're doing!"

"Isn't that kind of morally gray?"

"Nah it's completely morally rainbow! Anyways last but not least- 4: The matrix system will try to stop you. And it'll hurt- you can't be injured but they can still lock you up. Those "sick" people House treats? They're people like us, people who figured it out. They've been locked up to stay out of the way"

"By locked up you don't mean…"

"Imprisoned, no way out, padded walls- daily shots, huggable jacket, you get the picture"

"Oh."

"No pressure eh? Now let me out of this cell and get me into that city hall!"

"But wait- you haven't told me how you figured all this out!" Carter said, that tiny ounce of average-joe reality left in him from the day protesting with all its might against the chaos that was occurring around it.

"Ah, that. I got electrocuted. By a lamp. Long story really, maybe I'll tell you later- anyways, I realized that here food has no taste and the paper says the same thing in it every other day"

"Oh" Was about all Carter could get out, "I read the paper every day. Wouldn't I notice..?"

"Not with them all tapped into your cerebral cortex of course!" The Doctor exclaimed as Carter unlocked the cell and let him out.

"Right- cerebral cortex"

"To business then! Tesla and Grey, dinner, town hall, and Rutherford B. Hayes- but not necessarily in that order"

The first stop on the crazy express was dinner at what was simply known as "The Diner". It was the only place in town to go to do well, anything. Hang out, get a drink, eat, or even plan how to take down the matrix from the inside. Luckily for The Doctor and Carter, this meant that they could see not only Tesla but also appear to be completely normal because positively everyone in town went to "The Diner" so that they were hiding themselves in well, a crowd.

"Who are we here for?" Carter asked The Doctor nervously, still not quite sure about the whole thing.

"Tesla, of course. Otherwise he'll just drink himself into a stupor then we'll have a real problem on our hands"

This is why the pair of them casually sat themselves down on either side of the man, which of course only served to make Tesla suspicious of them in that drunken sort of way.

"Whaadddyyaaa want..?" Tesla demanded, bleary eyed and hopelessly out of focus. "Itt's not morning yet, yoouu cann't arrest me, hah! Hahahahaaa… Gods teetthhh I'm funny…haa haa.."

Carter gave The Doctor a 'you had better have a plan for this' look, which was returned with a 'chillax, I got this' look. Tesla returned both with a cold, hard, drunken glare.

"Er- Mr. Tesla, I actually have come to you with a business proposition" The Doctor managed, suddenly wondering if he was out of his league.

"Bizzness? What do I want with yourrr bizness?" Asked the irritable drunk man.

Carter came to the rescue, "Well, you get to drink on the job and you get paid by the hour- twice minimum wage"

That certainly got the drunk mans attention. "Iz this some kinda joke? Why would you doo that?"

"Because we have a job that only you can do Mr. Tesla" The Doctor said grinning from ear to ear.

"Yea..?"

"Yea- you just come with us, we just have to pick up another employee and then we'll get to work"

"At this time? Whhatt doo you think I am? Stuipid. Stuipid Stuipid? Yoou don't go hirin drunk men in the middle of the night, are you killin someone..?"

"No!" Both Carter and The Doctor exclaimed.

"Then whatyam I doin?" His speech seemed to gradually degrade the more he talked.

"You'll be..making…stuff"

"Stuff." Even drunk, Tesla did not sound impressed. "Im outta here, you two are crazzzy" With that, tesla got up, draped his coat awkwardly over his shoulders and walked into the door, successfully knocking himself out.

"Good grief" Carter said, standing over the unconscious Tesla. "Well come on, you grab one arm, I got the other"

And with that, they heaved Tesla between them and dragged him down and across the street, to a dinky little clock shop.

The clock shop was closed. Not surprisingly, given the time of the night, but it was closed, and Tesla was starting to feel a bit heavy. The Doctor, also not surprisingly, made no inclination of even having noticed the closed sign and walked right in. There were no locks in Littleton.

Dropping Tesla on the floor they looked about themselves; the shop was covered wall to wall with clocks, all of them ticking a little too perfectly in time with each other. There was a worktable off to one side with a pile of watches atop it and a pair of some of the craziest glasses Carter had ever seen; the lens had lens. There was no sign of the shops keeper however.

"This guy always gave me the creeps" Carter was saying, looking at the stack of watches- all of them ticking in exact time which each other. Something in the back of his mind reminded him of a crazy clock…a millennium clock? What..? His thoughts were broken by the entry of one Gabriel Grey- wielding a baseball bat and looking thoroughly, and understandably, concerned.

"Don't swing!" Carter said quickly- "It's ok, I'm Sheriff Carter- you know me, I work down the street from you"

Recognition filled Grey's face and he put down the bat, though slowly. "What's going on? Why are you in my shop?"

The Doctor stepped in to answer that question; "'Ello Gabriel, listen this is gonna be a little bit confusing but I need your help- and this drunk lump's help" he said prodding Tesla with his foot, "To save the world. Think you're up for that?"

"What in the world?" Was all Grey could say, looking dumbfounded.

Carter came to the rescue, again, "Listen, we need you to help us or else the entire town will be destroyed- got that?"

"Destroyed?"

"Sort-of," The Doctor began, "But not really- its complicated but basically you and this lump," He poked Tesla again, "Are the only ones who can save everyone here- and to do that I need your help, gotcha?"

"What can I do that could possibly be of use? I'm just a clock maker"

"No- no you're not" The Doctors tone became darker, sadder, and gave Carter a bad feeling, as though he was about to hear some sort of a 'I'm so sorry' out of the guy for some reason. "But enough of this talking- we must go, we have to get to the big metal statue of Rutherford B. Hayes- and we have to do it tonight!"

"Tonight!" Carter and Grey said together, Tesla mumbling something, possible 'tonigh?'.

"Yes, tonight-" The Doctor began.

"You never said anything about it having to be tonight!" Carter almost shouted- it was 11:46 as it was.

"Didn't I? Oh well, oops. See In order for all this to be possible I set in a minor virus-"

"What?"

"Shut up! And this virus shuts off at midnight- couldn't be helped, a bit Cinderella really-"

"Then why are we standing around here shouting and wasting time and everything?" Carter demanded- "We're running out of time!"

"Time to do what?" Grey questioned, starting to fear that he was going to be dragged into a bank robbery, murder, etc. Granted, the town bank was rather small and probably had only about $500 paper bills in it.

"Grey- we're in the matrix and have to dash or else we'll be trapped forever, help Carter carry Tesla. I have to go yank off Rutherford B. Hayes' beard"

"What?" Grey asked, again.

"Just do it man! And stop asking stupid questions- come!"

And with that they dashed for the town hall, and for the ugly statue of Americas 19th president, to, presumably, save the town from the depths of the Matrix.

Dragging Tesla slowed them down, and, shockingly, the town hall was at the top of a relatively far-off hill, not down the street like everything else, and so they had to run- which was difficult with a confused clock maker and a drunk, drunk man. But at last they made it to the town hall; to find it surrounded. Surrounded by the townsfolk, or the 'non player characters' as the Doctor called them, they were the shopkeepers, the next-door neighbors, the little old lady and that guy who was always at the bus stop but never on the bus. They were also standing eerily still with creepy flashing blue eyes. These creeps didn't help them when it came to getting Grey on board with everything.

"What's- what's wrong with them? They- they're eyes- they're-"

"Come on!" The Doctor pulled them so that they were facing the Town Hall, the clock reading 11:56. They had 4 minutes before it was all over.

The creeps didn't move, but they did all turn to face them, hands behind their backs in the image of perfect domineering creepiness.

"How are we going to get past these guys?" Carter demanded of the Doctor, dropping Tesla who made a "ugh" noise.

The Doctor looked speculative for a minute- then he beamed ear to ear again. "Easily! Mr. Grey this is partially your job- I need you to send out a bolt of lightning- I need you to hit the head one these guys, the town mayor. You know him, short, plump and desperate for re-election but having absolutely no opposition"

The confused clockmaker exploded, "Lightning? That's impossible! What are you crazy- all of this! It's crazy! Absolutely crazy-"

At that moment all of the NPC's flashed out of existence for a split second, and the Doctor pocketed his make-shift sonic screwdriver (more of a sonic pencil in this mad world).

"Now do you believe me?" He asked, looking Grey straight in the eyes.

"No, not really"

The Doctor gave him an exasperated look. "What do you want? Freaky people with glowing eyes- clearly _something's_ wrong there, all lined up and ready to stop you from what? Entering a public building? And then they go and flicker- flicker right out of existence for a fraction of a minute and you still think everything's dandy, what has humanity come to!"

"I didn't say I didn't believe you about things being…weird. I just don't think it's possible to shoot lightning out of my hands- I'm no one special"

"Oh! Oh, oh oh!" The Doctor slapped his forehead, brain working like an engine on overdrive. "That's it then? Well great! Swell! I might be able to work with this! Because you mister are not ordinary"

Carter was growing impatient, especially with the small army of NPC's glaring at them ominously with shiny blue eyes.

"Guys- I know that he's some sort of nuclear-matrix-bomb guy and all but, please tell me there's a plan B? Frankly these guys are giving me weird looks and I don't like it"

Grey went still. Nuclear? Why would that… Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. A flash of a memory, just one; standing on a roof, saying one very bomb-like word: Boom. Tick. Tock. That's right… A world of memories flooded in then; killing, death, desire and an insatiable hunger for, well, power. But then something else. A carnival and a blonde deaf girl who needed saving; and realizing that good, well, felt good.

He breathed deeply inward as all of the pieces of his mind fell back into place, looking up slowly- seeing things properly for the first time, the veil over his eyes falling away as he saw just how crude the world they were in was. Almost every tree was identical; the town's people all had similar, generic features, every feeling was wrong- what he felt, what he sensed were just memories of senses, expectations for what they should be but not actually true to life. Tick. Tock. Tick.

"There's no need for a plan B" Sylar said.

"Brilliant!" The Doctor declared, leaping for joy and giving Sylar a great glomp of a hug. "Now, can you take out the mayor? Has to be with lightning. Nothing else will work, got it?"

"Easily Doctor," And he lifted his hand. Carter tensed, he had vague memories of watching this guy on Friday nights with Alison and hand lifting was usually bad, so he couldn't help it: he cringed.

A bolt of blue lightning shot from Sylar's hand, spiraling between the Bar Keep and the librarian; colliding with the short, portly mayor who erupted into random strands of binary. As the mayor collapsed into a heap of fragmenting binary code, all of the other NPC's exploded around him in similar manners.

"That was too easy" Carter muttered, as a random strain of ones and O's fluttered by his head, they had once been a waitress at the local cafe.

"Easy or not- we must move! Quickly, you two pick up our drunk friend here, hopefully with the collapse of the program he'll start to remember what's going on- and that he can't get drunk," The Doctor started running off towards the town hall building, leaving Sylar and Carter in a jungle of binary.

"He can't get drunk?" Carter said after a moment's hesitation.

"I can shoot lightning from my hands and this surprises you?" Sylar retorted, grabbing one of Tesla's arms.

They arrived in the town hall itself to see the Doctor already hard at work, the 19th presidents beard lay discarded on the floor; his exposed chin revealing extensive circuitry, with the odd stray wire poking out as the Doctor did his handiwork. Carter gawked as the town hall flickered in and out of existence; "You gave him a serious shave" He commented, dumping Tesla on the floor again. Sylar too, was intrigued by the world's worst barber's job. "How is this going to get us out of here?"

"You'll see, you'll see" The Doctor replied through the sonic pencil in his mouth, "Now, kick Tesla would you? Gonna need him in a minute"

Carter called up to the Doctor, "What good can he do? He's more useless than-"

"Than what? I hope you weren't going to say what I think you were" Standing there, arms crossed and looking deeply agitated was none other than Nikola Tesla, who had suddenly forgotten he was drunk.

"Your awake-" Carter began, looking the guy up and down. When not standing with a drunken sailors stance, he was…quite different to behold. Arrogance seemed to seep out of his very pose, and he looked over all three of them with a critical eye.

"Of course I'm awake, I was never asleep! Not that any of you took any notice- regardless; we're in a bit of a pickle aren't we?" He didn't wait for a response. "What do you want me to do?"

The Doctor slid over from Rutherford B. Hayes, looking back and forth from Sylar to Tesla. "Well, we're gonna need a bit of electro-magnetism if you know what I mean"

"I hope _he's_ not providing the electro part, that little zap he let out earlier? Please, I've seen some of my coils let out more juice" Tesla said, gesturing to Sylar in a manner which could only be called by one word: dramatic.

"You want to test that?" Sylar growled, looking down on what he took for a very silly, strange, vaguely foreign little man.

"Try me psycho-boy" Tesla replied snidely, peering up at what he took for a very ridiculous, insane, man with way to much hair gel (and that's considering his experience with Will).

"Guys! Trying to escape the matrix here remember?" Carter cut in on their lightning-powered ego trip.

"Oh, right" "Of course," "How impudent..." "Doctor what do you want us to do?"

"Well, it's actually pretty simple- Tesla, you're the magnet-bit, you just gotta channel tons of magnetism stuff into the statue over there, and Sylar, you just gotta zap it with your lightning-bits kay?" The Doctor explained in a hopelessly vague way that left Sylar confused and Tesla rolling his eyes.

"You want us to short circuit it?" Tesla inquired in a tone lathered in barbs.

"Yes- er, of course!" The Doctor beamed, immune to any form of barbery.

"Well, by all means- I've got lightning, let's kill Rutherford B. Hayes" Sylar said sardonically.

Tesla placed a hand on Hayes exposed chin, criticizing the Doctor's handiwork the entire time, which served only to annoy the Doctor "What could he possibly know!" after all. Sylar, ignoring the criticism, also touched the chin- and took Tesla by the hand.

"Ready?"

"Ready"

A burst of lightning and the statue began to glow with intense light, blinding Carter as the two lightning-men yelled with surprise, the Doctor typically was laughing.

"Nothing like burnt computer board in the morning!" He called out as everything stopped. The world stopped, as if it were paused. Everyone held still, stuck in the same positions and Carter feared that the smart people had somehow messed up, until things started going again, and too quickly. They were all sent flying backward- out of the town hall into a vast sea of whiteness. Everything had gone and what was left was falling away in currents of binary, the town hall already was disappearing leaving only the heavily abused president.


	4. Chapter 4

Sensation returned to Carter as he opened his eyes to find himself staring out through a green murk. What? As feeling continued to return to his body, he dimly realized that he was floating, standing up, in some sort of radiation-green glop. This glop was contained in a sort of coffin-like cylinder, like you'd see on Star Trek or something, there were a few distracting wires stuck to the top of his head too. He was fine with all this, until he remembered that he had to breathe, then panic kicked in. Carter banged wildly against the glass, but lacked the ability to smash through it. Darn! He thought to himself, certain that he would die drowning in green matrix-sludge. Suddenly to the left of him he could make out a green-slime covered fist and accompanied by some flying glass to boot. This was followed by an entire person, a woman to be exact, one that he didn't recognize.

The woman pulled herself up and stopped to look about her in a very dramatic, slightly ridiculous manner. All Carter could see of her was a shock of short, red hair and an embarrassingly well-built body in tightly fitted white, green sludge covered, pajamas. I've got to get her attention! He thought desperately, thumping wildly against the glass to get her attention only to have her turn and give him a cold, hard stare. Wouldn't she let him out? She made some sort of a gesture with her hands that seemed to be a mad-pushing dance and that only served to confuse him, why didn't she smash the glass? She rolled her eyes, and with a well-placed, slightly upsetting kick, smashed the glass to Carters coffin-cell.

"Why didn't you move out of the way?" She inquired, looking down on him as he hacked and gasped for breath, thankful that his green-slop covered pajamas weren't quite as well fitted as hers were.

"Move- move out of the..?" He coughed, sitting himself up, "What are you talking about…?"

She shook her head and crossed her arms, "Shouldn't there be more than one of you?" she inquired, and then Carter remembered Tesla, Sylar and The Doctor.

"Oh no, no, no no…" He leapt to his feet, looking desperately left and right, would they have drowned? Why'd he take so long to get out himself? If they were dead and it was his fault- what then? When the entire 'door' to one of the coffins went flying through the air and smashed into the railing behind him.

"Man!" Carter shouted in surprise as Sylar extracted himself from his own green-slime prison, slicking his hair back with a green hand and looking up at Carter with what could be called an amused smile.

"Not scared of loud noises are you Carter?" He asked, pulling his hand away from his head with a long train of green slime. "Uck! What is this stuff?" He demanded, flicking his arms in a fruitless attempt to dislodge some of it.

"I dunno, life-preserving matrix goo?" Carter managed, finding an irritated looking Tesla in the coffin to the right of Sylars. "Help me get him out- will you?"

"Do I have to?" Sylar asked, turning away from the surprisingly not-dead Tesla.

"Yes! Now do your- do your move-stuff-with-your-mind thing, now ok?"

"It's called telekinesis," Sylar said coldly, before lifting a hand and removing the door from Tesla's green tomb.

"Finally!" Tesla exclaimed, armed crossed as he staggered out of his own personal matrix-cell, "You know it's a good thing this sludge has electro-magnetic waves running through it or else I'd be very dead right now, no thanks to any of you" he brooded.

"Electro-magnetic waves..?" Sylar inquired at a loss,

"Yes of course! Probably sent right into our brains- how else do you think we were in some mad computer game with such little hard-wiring?" Tesla exploded, "Now where's that alien idiot? And why's Scarlet Johansen here?"

"Excuse me?" The thus far, unnamed red head shot back at him, "What did you call me?"

"You heard me Miss. Scarlet"

The stare off between the two was enough to intrigue Sylar, and unnerve Carter.

"Guys! Seriously now- where's the Doctor? And who is this chick?" Carter demanded, looking desperately left and right of him, only now noticing the empty cell in between all of theirs, it'd door swung wide open.

Tesla however did not notice the empty coffin and instead answered the second, "Oh you know, just Scarlet-"

"My name is Natasha Romanoff" The red-head said coldly, staring down Tesla with far-too intense eyes.

"Well…that's nice," Carter said, now looking over the empty middle coffin, which had a trail of slimy bare green footprints leading away from it.

"Where's the Doctor?" Sylar brought up, arms crossed, no longer amused by Tesla and Romanoff's antics.

"I'm thinking he went this way…." Carter began, following the footprints cautiously, making a set of his own as he walked.

They went on for a little ways; and the complex was huge. It was cylindrical in shape, with a hollow core and a spiraling ramp floor system crawling up it. The walls were lined with an unknown number of matrix-coffin-tubes, just like the ones they had been held in and all filled with people. Some of the people were eerily familiar.

"Was that..?" Sylar began as they passed by one tube in particular which held a bald kid with some weird penchant love for blue arrows.

"I don't know, I don't know- ok?" Carter grumbled, really hoping that the footprints they were following actually lead to the Doctor. The guys an alien! He thought to himself, does he even have ten toes? How do I know he hasn't got like bear feet or something? And, seriously, how far did the guy walk? There's no way he got out THAT LONG before the rest of them, and even if he did- why didn't he help them out? Where'd he think he was going anyways? They knew that he'd stopped at some computer that was technologically beyond all of them, even Tesla, maybe he got directions from that? His thoughts were broken as a very loud Hello! interrupted them.

"Hello!" The Doctor beamed adjusting the bowtie to an outfit that was definitely not white pajamas, or covered in potentially radioactive green slime.

"Doctor?" Carter gawked, looking at the incredible cleanliness, and peculiarness of the man. He was wearing more tweed than Carter had seen at Eureka's annual garden party and croquet tournament (with real anti-matter croquet balls!). "Why aren't you green?"

"AH, yes, well- that. See-" Before the Doctor could finish his statement, he was interrupted by Romanoff.

"How did you get out of the Matrix system before all of us?"

"Ah, Natasha, Natasha- getting right to the point aren't you? Easy, I'm clever."

"That's not a real answer" Sylar remarked.

"No, it isn't" Tesla, shockingly, agreed. "Because frankly, I'm clever too"

The Doctor looked disappointed that he couldn't keep a 'I'm clever!' lingo going forever, and so thus explained.

"Right, fine- I glitched out. Time Lord brains are a wee bit more complicated than your human brains. See, we're built a bit differently- in ways that would take me ages to explain, not that you aren't brilliant- your certainly brilliant, but-"

Romanoff cut him off from his rambling monologue. "Just get to the point"

The Doctor shook his head and grinned, "Would you believe that she didn't believe me when I said she was in the matrix?"

"She didn't?" Carter said eyeing her warily.

"Nope, apparently I came off as rather well, daffy." Romanoff eyed the Doctor, "Anyways- to the point. Because I am a Time Lord, the computer system had trouble dealing with me, so, I wasn't input properly. Wound up popping out a little after they put me in" The Doctor explained.

"So then you woke up and decided to free some people..?" Sylar continued.

"Yup- at first I wanted to free all 154 people here, however- didn't work out that way. See the way this place is hard-wired, I could only spread my glitch to a few people on either side of my cell; you guys."

"That still leaves 150 people trapped in the matrix" Tesla observed cynically.

"Yea, well, there was no other way out of it- and at least some people get out right?" The Doctor explained sheepishly.

Carter looked at all of the other cells, 150 people? But why? What did they have in common? Why stick them in the matrix? None of it made any sense. And something else was bothering him, how would they get out? Where were they anyways? Obviously they weren't from well, the same places. That would be crazy… Scarlet Johansen lookalikes just didn't run around pell-mell in the real world.

"Where'd you find your clothes?" Carter finally asked, really wanting to just get out of the horrible slimy white pajamas and get into his own clothes; maybe without slime in his ears he could think this through more properly.

"Clothes? Ah yes- follow me!"

The Doctor lead them into an enormous warehouse of a room, with massive shelves covered in boxes- 154 boxes to be precise, all organized alphabetically with 'Aang, ATLA' listed first and foremost. There were also bathrooms with showers that the Doctor said were probably for either the guys who built the place, or the guards who kept them there.

"Guards? But I haven't seen a soul" Sylar said, looking through the many names, wondering to himself if he was under 'G' for Grey, or 'S' for Sylar.

"Well, they're all gone now- left from what I can see after they filled up the unit" The Doctor explained, hunched over a computer consol.

"Left?" Carter asked, stuck between a couple other 'Jack Carter' and 'John Carter' boxes. He finally found his which was labeled: Sheriff Jack Carter, big difference. Inside were his uniform, gun, phone, police radio, and a raisin bran granola bar.

"Yup, left. From what I can see they have a few of these Matrix complexes, all designed to hold 154 prisoners, and once they fill them up, they leave. See, they don't expect us to get out" The Doctor said, opening up maps and complicated looking binary files on the computer, waving his Sonic Screwdriver about wildly.

"And who are they?" Romanoff asked coolly, leaving the bathroom freshly cleansed from the green slime, black cat-suit on.

"They? They is the question I don't have an answer for" The Doctor admitted, "Whoever they are- they're smart. Really smart- they've crossed dimensional barriers, even Time Lords couldn't do that. Whenever we tried bad things happened, just ask Omega- poof! No body. No whoever 'they' are, they're of a whole 'nother league all together. And that scares me."

"Dimensional barriers?" Tesla scoffed, "That's impossible. What your suggesting there is-"

"I know, I know, but it's the only explanation" The Doctor said, "Some of the people imprisoned here simply aren't real, can't be- but there they are. Like someone reached into the tele and pulled out entire casts of heroes- and villains"

"Well, great." Carter grumbled, "How are we gonna get out of here then? And back to our own homes? Er- dimensional barrier things"

"Working on that- that's what this here computers for- and I'll figure it out with it" The Doctor said, tapping the top of the screen affirmatively with his sonic screwdriver.

Once they were all clean, dressed, and had disposed of the horrible white pajamas, they put their heads together, at a complete loss as to how to get out.

"It's no good- since they're done putting people here they've shut off everything but life support for the prisoners" The Doctor explained, pacing back and forth in frantic thought. "I mean, sure, I know where their cross-dimensional device is but to use it? Even for me that would be a toughie, it's not exactly temporal mechanics you know"

"Not really" Carter replied, looking down over the railing at the 150 other prisoners coffins.

"Even if we could get it working, there's no way we could control it- I can't even guess what the coordinate system is based on, I mean think about it!" The Doctor continued prattling. He'd been doing this for over half-an-hour; the others had given up on any real input a while ago.

"Don't you have some magic time travel box thing?" Tesla asked, exasperated, and sick of hearing the Doctor ramble on.

"Yes! My TARDIS! But it can't cross dimensional walls and it certainly won't help us here, we have no way to power the dimensional device! UG! Think Doctor think!" His pacing kicked up a notch, now at super-speed walking mode.

A thought occurred to Carter. "Doesn't your TARDIS have a battery? Like a car?"

The Doctor stopped his pacing and stared at Carter, a smile forming across his face.

"Yes! Of course! Brilliant- and if I hotwire the TARDIS's control system to the Matrix's transport module then I should be able to gage were abouts to land! Perfect! Absolutely- Carter I can't believe I'm saying this but genius! Brilliant! Whoo-hoo!" The Doctor took off running down the ramp towards the dock where it was being held, along with a few other interesting machines including a stainless-steel car and an ugly little ship with 'Gaileo' printed on the side in a tacky swirly font.  
"What's happening?" Sylar asked, looking up at a loss.

"The little green man has figured out how to power his UFO" Tesla replied, getting up from his spot, he'd been leaning against one of the cells, this one containing a brunette young woman with her hair in buns on either side of her head.

With TARDIS set in place in front of what at first glance appeared to be a Stargate with a terminal attached to it, the Doctor ran about wildly, and with Tesla's help, hacked the 'Stargate' and attached the TARDIS to its main controls.

"How's that going to get us anywhere?" Carter wondered aloud, "I mean- there's nothing through this thing"

"Do you expect a trans-dimensional portal to look like a door or something?" Romanoff rolled her eyes, arms crossed, really hoping that this thing didn't land them in Asgard or something.

"No- I dunno, just more than a big tacky ring set in the ground. I mean, this looks like it fell off the set of some low-budget sci-fi show-" He cut himself off, as it had suddenly occurred to him that there was a distinct possibility that he came from such a show. "Man! This is just weird!" He groaned, "I mean- she's from a movie- you're from tv shows- and he's a historical figure who's been heavily abused by tv writers"

"I take offense at that statement" Tesla growled, looking up for half-a-second from the mess of wires he and the Doctor were dealing with.

Sylar laughed darkly, "He's right you know, and frankly what bothers me is that I have a clone running around somewhere who pretends to be me for money"

"When you put it like that..." Carter began, when the 'Stargate' lit up with a blue glowy-swirly vortex of terror.

"Excellent!" The Doctor declared, leaping up and typing rapidly into the terminal attached to it. "Now hurry- all of you hurry into the TARDIS, don't think we can keep this up for very long!"

"But where are we going?" Romanoff demanded as they hurried into the little blue box.

"Easy- to what I believe is a dimensional crossroads, you see, based on Rassilon's theory of time/space Dimensions have a point of convergence and well, it's really complicated timey-wimey stuff, but you'll see!"

"And how will that get us home?" Carter demanded, stopped in the doorway, gawking at the immense internal size of the TARDIS. This is bigger than SARAH! He thought to himself, before being shoved all the way through the door by the Doctor.

"Easy, easy, once there I'll simply blast us off to each of our desired landing areas- a bit like how tele-waves bounce off of satellites got it?"

"No, not really"

"Won't we, die?" Sylar brought up, as the Doctor closed and locked the TARDIS door. "I mean, theres no oxygen in space-"

"The TARDIS can create a nice friendly clean bubble of O2 for all of us, just don't you worry, Tesla push the green squiggly lever for me won't you?"

The spire in the middle of the TARDIS began to move up and down, and a noise both wretched and wonderful filled the room: veerrooooo verrrrooooo roooo rooo.

"That can't be good" Tesla said automatically, looking at the Doctor like he was nuts.

"Coming from you? The man with the musical lightning bolts? Please, that's just her running- it's a brilliant sound!"

At least, it was, before it started speeding up. It went from a simple, slow paced sound to a very rapid one, as though the TARDIS were hyperventilating. .

"Oh bugger! No, no! Bad! Very bad! Carter, push that red button, Tesla- green squiggly, Romanoff before they both do that, pull that dingle-whopper, Sylar- mind the ketchup and hit the thermal-vortex-defribulator!"

"The what?" Sylar shouted at a loss over the great VEROOOVEROOO noise.

"The left-right lever, pull it left- then right! Do it! NOOOOWW-"

The TARDIS hurtled through territory it was unused to, on the edge of all universes, her hull on fire as she spiraled wildly out of control, lacking the power to hold on for much longer. She needed to land, and she wasn't going to let her idiot thief man with all his silly 'dimensional crossroads' talk get in her way. She found just the place, a place with a catcher's mitt designed just for these sorts of situations, and she let herself be caught.

note: fun ride so far? next stop is Eureka itself :D

please review~!


End file.
